Spain’s Ritmo magazine has praised the Scharoun Ensemble Berlin’s recording of Schubert’s Octet, D. 803, calling it one of the greatest successes of the prolific label so far in 2026.
The review traces the ensemble’s origins to the Berlin Philharmonie’s Kammermusiksaal, noting that the group’s eight founding members in 1983 — five string players and three wind players — mirrored the exact instrumentation of Schubert’s Octet, making the work a natural cornerstone of the ensemble’s identity ever since.
Ritmo highlights the recording, made in January 2025, as impeccable both artistically and technically, with clarinetist Alexander Bader singled out for some of the disc’s most magical moments, including his pianissimo entrance in the Adagio. The current lineup includes co-founding double bassist Peter Riegelbauer alongside Wolfram Brandl, Rachel Schmidt, Micha Afkham, and Claudio Bohórquez on strings, and Markus Weidmann and Andrej Žust completing the wind section.
The review notes that the ensemble doesn’t shy away from moments of darkness in the score, describing them as traces of an almost invisible sorrow within an otherwise luminous reading.
Schubert: Octet is out now on PENTATONE.
